


Well, not so bad, really

by Bakurakrazie



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Giant/Tiny, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 14:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21357568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bakurakrazie/pseuds/Bakurakrazie
Summary: In a world where tinies like you are kept as pets, you find yourself abandoned by your owner, facing down the infamous Shadow Man. A giant/tiny AU; infinitesimal!sides.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	Well, not so bad, really

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been in my head for a while, and I decided to just do it. This is set in the Sanders Sanctuary AU, based on [ this post.](https://sanders-sanctuary-au.tumblr.com/post/184579682677/has-dee-ever-been-forced-to-hurt-a-borrower-to)
> 
> [Read it on tumblr here.](https://bilgisticallykosher.tumblr.com/post/188904382552/well-not-so-bad-really)
> 
> Look out for the Trogdor reference!

You lurch as you're roughly expelled from your habitat. Well, cage, really, but you'd always thought of it differently. It had been spacious, yet furnished well, and had a homey sort of feel to it, overall. It helped, of course, that you had been in your owner's bedroom. 

Well, ex-owner, really. You tumble into a hand of an employee of some sort, you don't know who. You'd been permitted to be out of your habitat, but weren't given free reign of the whole place. You successfully suppress a noise as you finally realize that your ex-owner isn't even the one who's going to bring you over to get rid of you. You unsuccessfully suppress a strangled sob at the thought that the one that you lived with for all that time was _getting rid of you._

Literally strangled, because whoever's got you is clutching you none-too-gently around the middle in a fist. You feebly try struggling in the grip, as you're walked over to a dilapidated, wrecked area, and you can see evidence of other humans with other tinies having been there. Then, suddenly, you're swathed in shadow. A very man-shaped shadow. 

You make another strangled, frantic sound as your movements increase. You don't know why you didn't think about this possibility in the drive over here. Sure, you'd overheard the conversation about your ex-owner wanting to get rid of you. In fact, you'd heard them say that they would be giving you over "to whoever would take" you and hadn't that just been the finishing arrow through your heart of an already heartbreaking conversation? Still, you'd just thought it would be to another owner, which was still pretty bad. Well, devastating, really. 

Your breathing constricts as the hand around you does the same, and your eyes rise up and up to meet those of the man in front of you. You mean, he was The Shadow Man. Although, you'd also heard that maybe, he was the shadows. Um. 

But he was still- _looking_ at you, and he's visibly unhappy, and you think the employee might be talking, even if you can't hear it over the sound of your panicked breathing, rapid heartbeat, and gathering tears. He nods at the employee, sparing you one last glance, well, frown, really, before turning to your captor.

"That's right, no fee, just a tiny that you never have to concern yourself over again." He laughs then, as you shiver and quake at all the implications that statement holds. It's a deep, unforgiving laugh, and you wish not for the first time that your ex-owner had been the one to bring you here. Maybe there would have been a final burst of sympathy, and at this thought you start crying anew, because you'd really thought you were friends. 

Maybe your ex-owner had been good at pretending, maybe you'd just deluded yourself. Either way, you'd take any other option over being given to this scary man, with his promise of unimaginable cruelty. 

Although, you seem to be doing a pretty good job of imagining it right now. 

The employee thrusts you forward, and you see The Shadow Man reach into his cloak to pull out a cage. It had someone else in it already. 

It was another tiny, of course it was, and he looked terrible. His outfit was a mess of what looked like patched together rags, and he was filthy, and he staggered around his cage when it was steadied. 

The employee audibly cringes, which covered up your own noise of horror. You don't know if he was like this before, or if he'd been in The Shadow Man's possession for some time today, or maybe even a few days. 

_"Oooohhhh!"_ He moans terribly, and The Shadow Man looks down at him, sneer of a grin faltering for a moment. _"OOOOHHHHH!"_ He wails again, flinging an arm over his head as he bends backwards. You blink through your tears, nonplussed, until his cage is shaken, and you wince. It didn't look like a hard shake, but it must have been, because he falls to his knees before falling forward. The arm holding you lowers slightly. 

"You're sure you want another one? You, uh, still seem to have a live one there." The Shadow Man whips his head back around at the employee, expression an outright leer as he takes a step closer. The employee shivers, obviously almost as intimidated as you are, although you've stopped crying now, and you feel the hand around you tighten. 

"I'm sorry," he clearly wasn't, "I thought you were interested in getting rid of a tiny, no strings attached, but if you'd rather play chauffer trying to find someone else to take it…" He made as if to cover the cage again, the tiny getting to his feet again, and you can feel the hesitation in the employee, whether from the threat or distrust you don't know. Well, don't care, really. You look up, trying to catch their attention, maybe there's a little hope for you, after all? And then the tiny in the cage speaks again.

"Yes! Go take your tiny elsewhere!" He presses himself to the front of the bars, clasping them tightly. "Nobody else should face what I've faced!" You blink again. The words seem right, but…

He flings his arm over his head again. "The horror! The terror! The t_rrrrr_agedy that is my existence!" 

…but you can't help but feel like that accent isn't real. And he definitely trilled that word. And maybe it's just you, but that definitely sounds like he's exaggerating things, which considering that he's in The Shadow Man's clutches, he shouldn't have to. 

Not to mention, why would he bring a tiny that he had in his lab, or chamber, or whatever. Not that you doubted what he was capable of in his twisted head, but the whole thing was odd. Well, suspicious, really. And he kept posing, you mentally tack on, watching the tiny in the cage clasping his hands together, arms length over his head.

"Every day is a new, different definition of agony!" The Shadow Man's cruel look is still there, and you're uncomfortable when you look at it, but you also notice that he appears to be sweating under his hat. He gives the cage another shake like before, but this time the tiny inside doesn't react. "Unimaginable acts of violence and unspeakable-" you watch as he cuts himself off, mouthing 'horror, terror, tragedy' and you realize that he's listing off the words he's already used as he counts them on his fingers. _"Twisted trauma!"_ The Shadow Man gives the cage yet another shake. He ignores it again. 

"Truly, his lack of compassion and empathy can only be matched by his creativity for the cruel, his verve for the vile, his capacity for the callous, his enthusiasm for the-!" He stops again, having gotten louder with each accusation, once again mouthing and counting to himself. The Shadow Man takes it upon himself to give him a few small shakes all together, and now that you're looking, you can actually see that they're really quite gentle shakes. 

He actually stumbles a bit this time, and he rubs the back of his head, turning to the side and outright glaring at The Shadow Man. He turns back to the front, before he contorts his face into something that reads almost like horror. The Shadow Man relaxed minutely, shoulder muscles coming down where you hadn't realized they'd been tense. Your eyes narrow. 

Something's definitely wrong. And you have no idea what they're trying to do. It seems like they're trying to convince someone of something, but you're not sure who, or of what. You wonder if they're somehow working together, and you want to dismiss it, because why would any tiny work with The Shadow Man? Unless, maybe it was to save themselves, but why would he have acted like that to save himself? You can't connect the dots. 

You feel the employee make the decision, then, pushing you forward as The Shadow Man opens the door to the cage, and you realize a second too late what's going to happen, and all that you can do is to close your eyes and prepare. He grabs you, and you wonder if your ex-owner ever even liked you, after all, as you prepare yourself for what's certainly the beginning of your end. 

You're expecting a large degree of roughness, and so you're shocked when you're kept in a loose grip. Certainly nowhere near as tight as the employee had on you, and while you can't escape (where would you even go?), you can't exactly consider this being constricted. 

The Shadow Man moves you, placing you into the cage with what feels like an equal amount of care as he held you. Your ex-owner hadn't even been this gentle when handling you. Of course, you'd liked the contact back then, as opposed to the stomach-churning terror that you feel now. As he removes his hand from the cage, you turn around, watching the employee turn around, walking back to the car, already on the phone. 

"Yeah, I took care of it." It's the last thing you hear of your old life, before the car door slams. The cage door closes after, mimicking it with a horrible finality. The Shadow Man's expression is hidden to you, and you don't even care to look for it. He moves then, walking around an alley corner that you hadn't even seen, and you spot his car. You sigh, and jump when a hand comes to rest on your shoulder. You turn to see the other tiny smiling genuinely at you. 

You immediately find this suspicious. 

The Shadow Man enters his car, placing the cage down in the seat next to him, throwing the both of you off balance and buckling the cage in, throwing you off mentally. His expression is serious, and he shuts the door, walking around to his side. You take the opportunity to curl up in a ball in a corner as far away from him as possible, and you hear him start the car in absolute silence. You've only been driving for a minute, when the other tiny speaks again. 

"So," You raise your head from your knees to see him clap his hands together. "I think that went well!" You stare at him, well, gape, really, because there's so many things that decidedly did not go well. Your heartbeat picks up, now sure that he's working with The Shadow Man with how casually he's speaking to, and looking up at him. He's confident.

The Shadow Man, on the other hand, turns his head, briefly, to look at him with his eyebrows raised before turning back to the road ahead. 

"Oh," he drawls, "is that what you'd call it?" You think he sounds annoyed, which cannot possibly be a good thing, whether the tiny's on his side or not, so you simply can't imagine why the other rolls his eyes, walking closer to him. 

"Oh, come on, Dee." You can't help but note with some degree of smugness that the voice he'd been using before definitely wasn't his normal voice. The one he was speaking with now seems much more fitting. You almost miss that he referred to The Shadow Man by another name. "It went great! We got in, we got out, nobody got hurt. It was perfect! What's got your hiney so whiny?" 

Your eyes widen in horror. You have absolutely no idea what's happening, and no idea what either of them is planning, least of all with you. The Shadow Man snorts. 

"Yes, I wonder. The increasingly ridiculous posing that you did looked very natural " He lightly drums his fingers on the steering wheel. "Not to mention that accent that you put on. Oh, and of course, I'd be remiss to not compliment you on your overdramatic tendencies back there, which definitely screamed genuine distress." 

He glances over at the tiny as he stops for what seems like a red light, a smirk growing on his face. The tiny has crossed his arms, and he huffs, meeting The Shadow Man's glance, dead on. You wildly try not to consider that phrasing as being funny. The Shadow Man's grin just grows. Somehow, it seems different than the sneer he had back where the employee had- back there. He tugs his gaze away from the tiny, car moving forward again. 

"Well, I still say-"

"Why, Roman, I'm not done praising you yet!" He places a hand on his chest, the mockery of offense, the other still on the wheel as, Roman apparently, perks up a bit hopefully. 

His hand returns to driving. "Your best performance of the day was when you actually," he inhaled, all traces of amusement gone, "went over the adjectives that you'd used previously, _counting them off_ in front of that schmuck. Twice." Roman gasped, startled out of his position. 

"You saw that?!" His mouth hangs open slightly. He looks away from the pseudo-eye contact, "I thought that I was being subtle."

"As an elephant attempting ballet." Roman gasped, turning back to The Shadow Man with another glare on his face. 

"First you insult my acting skills, and then you call me fat?!" Now Roman's hand was flat on his chest in what seemed like actual offense. 

"No, that's not-"

"Well I'll have you know that I was great! Sure, maybe a pointer or two would help, but not from you!" Roman pointed at him. "_You_ clearly have no taste anyway. Just look at your costume," that…was an odd choice of word. "I know you're going for a big, scary thing," he wiggles his fingers, and your mind is firing off signals that this is crossing into dangerous territory now. Well, has already crossed, really.

Roman twirls himself around slowly, "but mine does the job, _and_ looks great." You're prompted by his words to look closely at the clothing he's wearing. They're definitely ragged, but the stitching is good. You squint slightly, and notice that the dirt all over it looks to be vaguely hand-shaped.

Roman turns his head then, making eye contact with you, and his glare falls off, before he smiles, wide and toothy. You want to run away from him, but your back is already pressed against the bars of the cage which you note in your hysteria, are soft. 

"I know," he takes a step forward, your eyes widening. "I'll just ask our new friend, here!" You tense, looking back and forth from him to The Shadow Man, who has also tensed. 

"Roman, I'm not sure that's a good idea-" his face is expressionless, eyes on the road, even as Roman cuts him off. 

"Oh, tish tosh, mister posh! You just know that I'm right." He keeps advancing now, and you want to close your eyes to brace for whatever's about to happen, but you're afraid to look away. 

The Shadow Man keeps stealing glances at you while he drives. And then you focus on Roman, who's right in front of you. "Hi," he greets. 

You make an unintelligible noise in response. 

"I was just wondering, what exactly did you think of my obviously convincing performance?" He's looking at you, eyebrow lifted, face eager, too close, so you glance away to look at The Shadow Man again, who is definitely paying attention, even though he's not looking. His shoulders and face are tense, is he worried that you won't give the right answer? 

But, you don't know what the right answer is. Which means you'll probably give the wrong answer, but you have to give some answer. You don't know what to say, but it's already been five seconds, so you say the only thing you can possibly think of under all this stress. 

"You mean, you weren't that bad on purpose?" you blurt out. 

Admittedly, you're not the best under pressure. 

There's absolute silence for one second, two, three…

The Shadow Man bursts into laughter. This time, you flinch, and then you watch Roman's frozen smile shatter off of his face. He turns towards The Shadow Man, and you can't see his expression anymore, but he stomps over to the original side of the cage that he was on.

"Shut up! No, stop laughing immediately!" You feel something odd happening with the car, like he's turning, until you feel it stop. You see a lot more trees when you look up, and The Shadow Man moves the lever in the middle of the car as he releases the wheel. 

He pulled over to the side of the road. 

You still have absolutely no idea what's happening. But at least he's still laughing? 

"Oh my- That was-!" He struggles to get a sentence out through his mirth, and he wipes a tear away with his gloved hand. Roman turns back your way, and you stiffen up, but he just goes out a door that you hadn't noticed. He marches straight up to him and gives him a swift kick right above his elbow. This only makes him laugh harder, doubling over, gripping his stomach. 

Roman crosses his arms and huffs, tapping his foot while he waits. Eventually The Shadow Man seems to calm down, laughter stopping. He puts a hand on his chest as he adjusts himself, and exhales, still smiling. 

"Are we finished?" Roman's voice is steely. 

"For now." The Shadow Man responds. Well, purrs, really. "I'm ready to drive again, at least," he gives Roman a meaningful look at that, amusement still lacing his tone. Roman turns and walks stiffly, back straight into the cage again, shutting the door behind him. 

He gives you a once-over with his eyes as The Shadow Man does, indeed, start driving again. You look back at Roman, briefly, before averting your face, nervous about what he's going to do to you now. You still feel his gaze on you. You hear him walk around, pause, then come towards you. He clears his throat and you look up. 

He's holding a water bottle for tinies. He doesn't look angry, in fact, he rubs the back of his head, giving you what seems like an awkward smile. 

"Here. For you." You slowly take it, almost as if you expect it to be a trap. Roman's smile grows as you take it, and you gingerly place it down next to you all while watching him. He clears his throat again. "Sorry. I was supposed to give that to you earlier." You blink. You're beginning to re-think your initial thoughts on this whole situation. "I just want to let you know that you're safe now. You- you don't have to worry about the people that you came from. Or going to other humans. We came to rescue you from that life. Really. If you want." There's something about his tone that makes things start to click together in your mind. All the things that you'd expected out of today, especially after The Shadow Man showed up. 

Roman gestures to a spot near you. "May I?" You nod, and he smiles brighter, more sincere as he sits down next to you, giving you a comfortable amount of room between you two. 

As The Shadow Man continues to drive, Roman tells you all about the sanctuary for tinies, for borrowers. He tells you about what they do, who they are, and even what he was supposed to have accomplished by his being here in the cage. By the time he's done explaining everything, you've reached your destination. The Shadow Man parks before coming around to your side. When the door opens, Roman stands, shuffling out of the door, and in front of him. He clears his throat. 

"I, uh, I'm sorry for kicking your arm," he's not looking directly at him, only out of the corner of his eye. The Shadow Man smiles back at him, face relaxed. 

"It's alright." He holds out his hand, palm up as Roman looks up at him now. "I'm sorry for kicking your pride." Roman gives a short, loud laugh, and climbs up onto his hand, reaching his arms up. The Shadow Man carefully lifts him against his chest for a few moments. You decide to open your water bottle to take a few sips.

They separate, and you get up, walking towards the cage door while Roman is being transferred to his shoulder. You lift your leg to get out, hesitate, and look up The Shadow Man. He looks back at you and blinks, eyebrows raising. 

"Ah." He shifts in his spot. "I didn't call ahead for medical help, because you didn't seem to need any, so we don't have anyone meeting us." He shifts again, adjusting his hat. _He's nervous,_ you're shocked to realize. "I can get someone else from inside, though, to carry you. It doesn't have to be in the cage, either! All the humans inside are very capable of being gentle." He points with a thumb towards the building that you see in the distance, straightening up. "Shall I…?"

You've already made up your mind. 

"Actually," you reach your arms up, and The Shadow Man turns to look at you, surprise evident on his face. "I think that hug looked pretty okay?" You abruptly remember when your ex-owner showed you affection, before abandoning you. 

You wonder if maybe you're pushing it, but then you see and feel yellow gloves slowly cradle around you, and you look Dee in the eyes. You smile at each other, and as he hugs you, you think that you're going to finally be comfortable somewhere. 

Well, happy, really.

**Author's Note:**

> The OC is not anyone I put much thought to, I just needed a tiny to be there. So, OC up for grabs if you want? Just remember one thing: abandonment issues. Also, I wrote "you" which apparently threw me back into Homestuck so hard that I decided a quirk was needed. Hence "Well, X, really," being scattered throughout. 
> 
> My tumblr is bilgisticallykosher come hit me up if you want!


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